After a bout of rhetorical analysis on advertisements, this blog is going to tackle a beloved figure of film and literature, Aragorn, and his speech before the Black Gates of Sauron. Here is the text: "Hold your ground! Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!!"
It seems that the enthymeme of Aragorn is: What are the consequences of staying and fighting an insurmountable army on the future of Middle Earth? Aragorn would argue that staying and fighting an insurmountable army will preserve the future of Middle Earth, because making a stand before the Black Gate will ultimately result in the downfall of Sauron. His audience is a bunch of frightened men, who seem ready to retreat, thereby showing that they would disagree with his claim. Obviously they would agree with the implicit assumption that whatever results in the downfall of Sauron preserves the future of Middle Earth.
Aragorn begins his argument by appealing to ethos, his credibility not only as the king, but as a brother. The bulk of his argument rests on pathos. He appeals to the sense of honor inherent in he men of the west by painting a dismal picture and then refuting it. He tells them to stand because they believe in Middle Earth and what it stands for. His logos is definitely lacking, seeing how an army that outnumbers his about 100 to 1 stands before them.
An argument on the battlefield rarely resorts to statistics and research because that is now what the audience that is being addressed needs. I wouldn't care much if you told me that the odds of dying in battle were 34.7% if I saw a crazy guy with a sword running at me. Therefore, I believe that Aragorn's argument was sufficient, typical, accurate and relevant for his audience. After all, they did follow right behind him into the heat of battle. That would qualify as effective.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
RA example of propaganda WWII
Up next post will focus on the marvel of World War II Soviet propaganda. The Soviets were masters at warping the Russian people's perceptions of reality and using art, monuments and rhetoric to do so. This poster is typical Proletariat fare and features the caption: The People and Army are One! At the time of this poster, the government was striving to involve the people back in the USSR in helping to support the war effort. Since the army was fighting abroad, the audience includes the men and women not able to serve. The enthymeme is a typical war-time ideal: What are the consequences of "supporting the troops" (an interesting idea even today) on the success of the army? The manufacturing and agricultural efforts of the people back home will feed and clothe the army, as well as supply it with needed weaponry. The fact that the government felt a need to issue this poster indicates that ordinary citizens felt that they could not contribute to the war effort. The logos of the argument is that (apparent) unity breeds success. I think that most people would find that a logical conclusion. However, the appeal of this piece of propaganda is rooted in pathos. For Russians, red is a very important color. It symbolizes both power and beauty and would appeal to the Marxian idea of communism and the idea of "everyone in it together." The faces of the people radiate pride in their calling and satisfaction in their work, implying that anyone who unites with the army will have those very same feelings. The ethos is established through the hammer and sickle sign, representing the twin foundations of communism: industrial and agricultural workers. The success of Soviet propaganda is debated, but I believe that these posters were effective. The Russian people always wanted that unity, but the Soviet government is the one who made a bungle of it all.
FW Ben in Alaska
Basically my brother and his wife screwed themselves over, royally. My brother Ben is a pre medical student studding biology at BYU-I He and his wife took an internship in Alaska, where they called me from today, to wish me a happy birthday. I turned that phone call into I hope, a benificial conversation to motivate them do some thing that they have been dreading and putting off. Namely petition to switch tracts at school. BYU-I is so retarted in that they even have "tracks" it is a way of rationing the student body in such a way that every student has and only has 2 semesters a year that they can atttend school, I guess that this allows more students to attend. The unfortunate situation is that the medical internship in alaska is 8 months long, this means that Ben will miss his opportunity to attend school because of the internship and when he gets back he will be "off track" which means that he can not attend. Through the meny phone calls his wife has made to try to get things straightened out she spoke with a man who is on the committee who would make the decision about swithing tracts said that they could submit an online 300 word petition "but that they never even looked at them". So with out any feeling of success they have done nothing.......... I spoke with them briefly (only about2 hours.....) and helped them trough an argument analysis and I think that we came to the conclusion that they could build a strong argument via logos pathos and ethos. It is imposable for me to right down all of what we said but I truly enjoyed the power that Rhetorical analysis has allowed me to put good arguments together in a logical way that is targeted to my audience.
FW HIstory of creativity final project
For History of creativity I had to paint a painting and I decided to write something for this free write that I could turn in with the painting to "explain" myself.
White Salmon City
First and for most. I am an engineering major and this is the first painting that I have painted in my life. This is a picture of the Columbia river gourge in Washington by my house in a little town called White Salmon. This painting took forever! And I am happy with the final product. My wife is so proud of me she wants to hang it up (so please write all of your comments and corrections on this page. thanks)
This painting exhibits renaissance characteristics through the application of several different kinds of perspectives. My favorite form of perspective exhibited in this painting is diminishing perspective and I incorporated it through the gradual fading and graying of the colors layer by layer as you approached the focal point of my one point perspective. My one point perspective is not as obvious as if I had drawn anything man made like a sign or a house or a sidewalk. But if you look closely I painted the entire gourge to a vanishing point the canyon walls on both sides and the river converge on this point. That is my 1 point perspective. I also incorporated overlapping perspective in the trees against trees, trees against the water and the road, and mountains over mountains and clouds over clouds, ect. Overall this project was difficult but a lot of fun, I really learned a lot!
This is to promote the awe inspiring natural beauty of white salmon and its location in the historic Columbia river gourge. There are lots of places to hike boat and sights to see. It is a great place you should come and visit some time
White Salmon City
First and for most. I am an engineering major and this is the first painting that I have painted in my life. This is a picture of the Columbia river gourge in Washington by my house in a little town called White Salmon. This painting took forever! And I am happy with the final product. My wife is so proud of me she wants to hang it up (so please write all of your comments and corrections on this page. thanks)
This painting exhibits renaissance characteristics through the application of several different kinds of perspectives. My favorite form of perspective exhibited in this painting is diminishing perspective and I incorporated it through the gradual fading and graying of the colors layer by layer as you approached the focal point of my one point perspective. My one point perspective is not as obvious as if I had drawn anything man made like a sign or a house or a sidewalk. But if you look closely I painted the entire gourge to a vanishing point the canyon walls on both sides and the river converge on this point. That is my 1 point perspective. I also incorporated overlapping perspective in the trees against trees, trees against the water and the road, and mountains over mountains and clouds over clouds, ect. Overall this project was difficult but a lot of fun, I really learned a lot!
This is to promote the awe inspiring natural beauty of white salmon and its location in the historic Columbia river gourge. There are lots of places to hike boat and sights to see. It is a great place you should come and visit some time
FW Targeting and 1 to 1 behacioral targeting
Targeting
Online marketers are awaiting the day when candidates decide to utilize the highly specialized targeting abilities of the web. Right now candidates have the ability to specialize their messages through geographic or behavioral targeting capabilities.
Through behavioral targeting, campaign websites can serve ads or display content on their site in a special order as a reaction to the clicks or digital footprints that a person takes on their site. For example, they can serve more information about immigration as a person clicks on sections of the site pertaining to immigration - even to the extent that they recognize that user again and prominently display their immigration stance on the front page when the user returns. They can also purchase ads on exterior sites and serve content in the ads specific to topics that a user has already researched.
Similarly, campaigns can change their content to serve the interests of specific georgraphical areas by targeting IP addresses. For example, a website might say "Welcome, Texans" when a Texan visits the site. This could be extended to serving campaign stance content relevant to certain areas more prominently.
While behavioral targeting and geographic targeting are not currently used (as far as we know), the potential impact of this could greatly help or hurt (if done in a deceitful manner) a politicians campaign (Batra para. 1-10).
Online marketers are awaiting the day when candidates decide to utilize the highly specialized targeting abilities of the web. Right now candidates have the ability to specialize their messages through geographic or behavioral targeting capabilities.
Through behavioral targeting, campaign websites can serve ads or display content on their site in a special order as a reaction to the clicks or digital footprints that a person takes on their site. For example, they can serve more information about immigration as a person clicks on sections of the site pertaining to immigration - even to the extent that they recognize that user again and prominently display their immigration stance on the front page when the user returns. They can also purchase ads on exterior sites and serve content in the ads specific to topics that a user has already researched.
Similarly, campaigns can change their content to serve the interests of specific georgraphical areas by targeting IP addresses. For example, a website might say "Welcome, Texans" when a Texan visits the site. This could be extended to serving campaign stance content relevant to certain areas more prominently.
While behavioral targeting and geographic targeting are not currently used (as far as we know), the potential impact of this could greatly help or hurt (if done in a deceitful manner) a politicians campaign (Batra para. 1-10).
RA add analysis of truck add
The advertisement that I choose to analyze was actually on the side of a big home furnishing truck of a large local retailer. It took up the entire side of the semi. The picture had no text other than the company name. And it showed a an over head of a living room it had “the mom” laying on one half of the corner couch with “the daughter” sitting on the other side of the corner couch, with “the husband” getting a back scratch from the wife as he sits on the ground with “the son” sharing a huge bowl of popcorn. Laughing and giggling while all watching a huge big screen TV. So that is the ad.
The analysis of this ad tells me that this add is targeting women, and while the couch that the wife was using was as a product, was being sold as much as the TV as a product was being sold in the ad. But a deeper analysis shoes that the advertisement was not selling the furniture at all to the wife it was selling the family experience. It was selling that the husband would spend more quality time with the kids (if you bought the furniture), and the husband would be happier (if you bought the furniture) and you would be more comfortable, less stressed, more relaxed (if you bought the furniture). That is from my perspective what the advertisement was trying to sell.
For home theater in general women are harder to sell than men, which is why they are targeted in this add. If this add had been selling to men. It would have focused more on the equipment and hit up the high definition and how all of your buds are going to want to come over to YOUR house to watch the game ect. It was interesting to be able to analyze these aspects of the adds I see.
The analysis of this ad tells me that this add is targeting women, and while the couch that the wife was using was as a product, was being sold as much as the TV as a product was being sold in the ad. But a deeper analysis shoes that the advertisement was not selling the furniture at all to the wife it was selling the family experience. It was selling that the husband would spend more quality time with the kids (if you bought the furniture), and the husband would be happier (if you bought the furniture) and you would be more comfortable, less stressed, more relaxed (if you bought the furniture). That is from my perspective what the advertisement was trying to sell.
For home theater in general women are harder to sell than men, which is why they are targeted in this add. If this add had been selling to men. It would have focused more on the equipment and hit up the high definition and how all of your buds are going to want to come over to YOUR house to watch the game ect. It was interesting to be able to analyze these aspects of the adds I see.
RA Citi Bank Ad Citi to City
“From City to Citi”, andvertisement from citi bank found here. http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2007/04/citibankcity.html proclaims this Citi Bank advertisement, while an antique suitcase proudly displays decals and stickers from a few of the most reknown musical festivals in America. Unsurprisingly, this ad runs in Spin magazine, a magazine catering to the beatnik and the more-than-casual disciple of the music scene. In fact, there are few average people out there that would be able to even recognize all of the events displayed, let alone claim to have attended them all. Thus, the audience that this ad is targeting is those people of a younger age who get their kicks by city-hopping to various fields and desert locations in order to rock out with a few good, and many, many bad bands at festivals. There is certinaly a more suttle target audience here from citi to city meaning, is not so much targeted at the people who would use this bag as much as business men who also go from city to city and will need to count on the fact that thety will have access to thier money without ATM fees.
The advertisement, while simple, accurately and effectively speaks to its target audience: the slogan is short, but communicates much: “You are on the road constantly, driving all around the country chasing your favorite bands, and we know that this takes money.” “Why not bank with us, and we’ll worry about the funds. You just enjoy the show.”
Their ethos is secure in that the amount of shows that they are dropping names about exceeds the knowledge of the mere casual concert-goer. The logos is implied in the slogan that seems to suggest that if one travels from city to city, of course they’re going to need a bank. However, the inherent logic could be a bit stronger, as most festival-jumpers are likely going to be opportunistic youths who’s fiscal concerns amount to accumulating the change from the cushions of their couches to scrounge up enough cash to cover the tickets. It makes me wonder if citi bank is really targeting its prime audience.
Fortunately, this advertisement’s strength comes from its pathos. Look at that suitcase. It is the suitcase of choice for wanderers, hitchhikers, and students. The bag is retro and well used to say the least. It fits in with and is comfortable with the fluid nature of this target audience.
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